Welcome SharePoint911 to the Rackspace Family!

We are thrilled to announce that Rackspace has acquired SharePoint911.

SharePoint911 is a recognized thought-leader and authority in the SharePoint community and brings a technical powerhouse of SharePoint expertise ranging from architecture design, custom development, successful deployments and user adoption to Rackspace. Its team of 16 industry experts, including six Microsoft MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals), is well-known and respected throughout the SharePoint community and sought out for training and global speaking engagements. Collectively, the team has authored more than 10 SharePoint books such as Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration and Professional SharePoint 2010 Branding and User Interface Design as well as nine SharePoint training courses.

Today, Rackspace is one of the largest providers of dedicated SharePoint. Over the coming months, we will integrate the SharePoint911 consulting services into a comprehensive services portfolio to specifically address the needs of enterprise customers as SharePoint becomes more integrated as a business platform with enhanced capabilities.

This acquisition solidifies Rackspace’s commitment to the enterprise customer by providing trusted services in addition to our full portfolio of offerings in the business collaboration market and one more step toward our mission to be the service leader in cloud computing.

A. While the SharePoint market is relatively large, it is still a very fragmented market serviced by niche providers of custom development, consultants and individual specialists. The SharePoint911 team has consistently been recognized by customers, the SharePoint community and Microsoft for its thought-leadership in all areas of planning, design, development and implementation of complex, global deployments of Microsoft SharePoint. This acquisition further strengthens Rackspace’s position as a trusted SharePoint advisor.

Q: About the SharePoint911™ Team.

A: SharePoint 911 was founded in 2005. The team comprises16 employees including six Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (out of 167 worldwide MVPs) and the authors of more than 10 SharePoint books such as Professional SharePoint 2010 Administration, Professional SharePoint 2010 Branding and User Interface Design, and nine SharePoint training courses.

Q: What type of Services does SharePoint911 provide?

A: SharePoint911 services are designed for two distinct audiences within an organization: IT professionals and end-users within the Business unit. The team provides architecture planning and integration expertise to quickly ramp the IT staff on all technical aspects of SharePoint 2010. They also provide proven implementation and training experience to insure successful end-user adoption within the Business units.

Additional services such as: Branding and user-interface design, custom development, process design, workflow, help desk support and project management are also available throughout the SharePoint911 customer engagement.

Q: When will this Acquisition be finalized?

A: We officially acquired Sharepoint911 on February 14th, 2012 and announced it on February 16th.

Q: How does Rackspace plan to integrate SharePoint911 services?

A: SharePoint911 services are very complementary and strategic to Rackspace expanding awareness and presence into the enterprise market. We see a tremendous opportunity in our ability to offer more strategic planning and architecture design services within our portfolio. Additional new capabilities are: SharePoint administration, branding, custom development, training, remote and help desk support.

Q: Can you provide any examples of how SharePoint911 services compliment Rackspace?

Together, SharePoint911 and Rackspace team members have already made an impact on delivering deeper levels of Fanatical Support to our existing, more complex SharePoint customers.

Q: What is the “SharePoint Opportunity” for Rackspace?

A: SharePoint is Microsoft’s fastest growing server application in its history. Microsoft has sold over 125 million SharePoint seat licenses to 65,000 customers representing over $1 billion in annual revenue, Microsoft has said. Microsoft SharePoint is at the core of its business application strategy and provides the presentation layer for sharing information across the business (e.g. CRM, Sales, Accounting and Project data). Sixty-Seven percent of Microsoft’s Enterprise customers have deployed SharePoint within their organizations, according to figures released by Microsoft. The recent introduction of Enterprise License Mobility provides the flexibility for enterprises to consider moving these SharePoint workloads into the Cloud or Dedicated hosted environments.

Q: When do you anticipate new services, capabilities and offers to go to market?

A: We are currently evaluating new services and capabilities to bring to market over the next year.

Q: How does this acquisition add value to your OpenStack strategy?

A: OpenStack is very complementary. SharePoint addresses a number of collaboration and information sharing workloads within the enterprise and as these organizations evaluate the merits of open cloud architecture versus vendor lock-in, we feel Rackspace is very well positioned to meet the needs of enterprise companies.

Q: What does this acquisition mean for SharePoint911 customers?

A: SharePoint911 customers will immediately realize the power of Fanatical Support® in everything we do to insure their success. Rackspace relieves the burden of the IT department, allowing it to focus on the company’s core business and customers.

Q: Do you anticipate all SharePoint911 customers to be hosted at Rackspace?

A: No, many organizations are still in the process of evaluating SharePoint workloads such as on-premise versus public or private cloud versus dedicated hosted scenarios. For those that have made a strategic decision to move their workloads over to Rackspace, they can do so today. Prospects that have not decided may still take advantage of our advisory and professional services to help ensure success of their on-premise or private cloud deployments of SharePoint independent of Rackspace hardware and datacenters.

Q: What does this mean for Rackspace customers?

A: SharePoint911 provides thought leadership and new capabilities around maximizing their investment in SharePoint. Whether a customer decides to deploy SharePoint on-premise or off-premise, migrate or expand an existing SharePoint deployment or needs additional management, training or support, Rackspace will be able to accommodate their immediate and future SharePoint needs.

Q: Will the SharePoint911 team be joining Rackspace?

A: Yes. We are very excited to welcome SharePoint911 team members to the Rackspace family. The SharePoint911 employees are an extremely talented group of people and possess the same core values essential to the culture at Rackspace.

Q: What is SharePoint911 going to bring to Rackspace’s overall product and service portfolio?

A: Rackspace expects the acquisition of SharePoint911 to further strengthen our position as a trusted SharePoint advisor.

Q: Will SharePoint911 change its name to Rackspace?

A: In order to maintain their momentum and brand awareness as the authority on Microsoft SharePoint, SharePoint911 will use the brand “SharePoint911, a Rackspace Company”for the period of 180 days while its services and capabilities are fully integrated into Rackspace.

Q: How will SharePoint911’s customer base be affected?

A: SharePoint911’s current customer base will benefit from our ability to provide industry leading Fanatical Support across all levels of our customer engagement.

Q: What will happen to SharePoint911’s customers that are not currently hosted with Rackspace?

A: SharePoint911 customers will continue to receive support and services on all SharePoint911-supported engagements.

About the Author

This is a post written and contributed by
John Engates.

John Engates joined Rackspace in August 2000, just a year after the company was founded, as Vice President of Operations, managing the datacenter operations and customer-service teams. Most recently, John has played an active role in the evolution and evangelism of Rackspace’s cloud-computing strategy and cloud products.

John is also an internationally recognized cloud computing expert and a sought-after speaker at technology conferences, including CA World, the Goldman Sachs Techtonics Conference and Cloud Expo. He speaks on the future of cloud computing, enterprise cloud adoption, data center efficiency, green data center best practices, and more.

As a SharePoint fan in San Antonio, I applaud your vision and execution on this deal. It’s exciting!

http://www.onsiteict.com.ar Federico D’Onofrio

Well, I am not a SharePoint user, and none of my clients has asked me to help them become one of those thousands of businesses who actually do, but I am happy for Rackspace, because as I am reading here, it is a big step towards continue growing and becoming an even more reliable company. So cheers to that, Rackers! Welcome SharePoint911, and hope this is big news for all of you.